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A note on GeoHumanities SIG leadership changes

Posted by KarlG on Thursday, 23 March 2017

Dear GeoHumanists,
It's coming up on four years since we co-founded the GeoHumanities SIG of ADHO in 2013. In that time, the SIG has begun fostering community amongst those digital humanists whose research is geographically focused or inflected. Our efforts to that end have included: convening workshops and hosting dinners at DH conferences, launching a web site and coordinating associated initiatives (GIS project list, GeoDiRT), publicizing community-related events and projects with our Twitter account (@GeoHum_SIG) and email list, and advocating for an enhanced role for SIGs in ADHO and in DH conference programs (in 2016 Kathy took on the newly developed role, SIG Convener’s liaison to ADHO Executive Committee).

Although we can count several successes, there remains significant untapped potential for the GeoHumanities SIG. We have no governing bylaws, but now seems a good time to rotate some new members into leadership roles, and possibly to make some significant changes to leadership organization. After this year's DH conference in Montreal, Karl will step away from his co-chair role. Kathy will continue participating in some capacity into the next year to transition new leadership.

Several SIG members responded to our request for input this past March and we began a discussion on a way forward. We asked whether members want to continue with a co-chair leadership structure or possibly extend it to a steering committee; whether there is still a need for an Advisory Committee, or could that be disbanded? We decided to replace the co-chair leadership and existing Advisory Committee with a steering committee of 5 to 7 individuals, each with defined roles and responsibilities.

Our next step is to outline these proposed changes to any and all in Montréal, and to solicit further comments and participation. One of the first orders of business for the new Steering Committee will be deciding which initiatives the SIG will undertake and to consider working up some long term goals.

At the Montreal meeting the SIG business meeting to discuss these leadership changes will be on Thursday 10 Aug at 12:30pm, in Leacock 219. Eat lunch beforehand, or bring a brown bag.

Also on Thursday evening, we will have our traditional SIG social dinner, 7:00 pm at MKT Restaurant (located at 2044 Metcalfe). Please rsvp to khw2[at]rice[dot]edu so that we have space for you.